Principal defends recognition for test takers

Friday

Apr 11, 2014 at 1:02 PMApr 11, 2014 at 1:02 PM

By Al BruceThe Evening Tribune

ARKPORT — More than 20 parents crowded into the Arkport Central School board room Wednesday night to complain about how some district students were treated after not taking a statewide English Language Arts (ELA) test the first week of April.

One parent said the district “penalized the students by the choice of their parents to not take the test.”

“There were some students that took the test, others were released to their parents and ones who did sit and stare. All of these children are doing what is being asked of them, by their parents. The last time I checked we the parents are still in control of our children, not the Federal government, not the state government and not the school district.” Michelle Chamberlin, mother of children in Arkport grades four, six and eight

A student told board members, “It is not fair the kids who took the test got ice cream and the kids who didn’t got nothing.”

For instance, the Parent Teacher-Student Organization (PTSO) sponsors “Honor roll breakfasts at the end of each marking period for only the students who make the honor roll,” Dewey said. “The 4-6 graders who receive an honor roll certificate for each of the first three marking periods also receive one at the end-of-the-year award assembly.

“The PTSO recognizes the classes who win the Around the World Math challenge. There are art awards, sports awards, music awards: the list is extensive."

However, “It’s a given that not every child always receives a reward,” she said.

The school district also monthly emphasizes character traits.

“April’s (quality) is perseverance,” Dewey said.

The district sign, website, calendar and student handbooks all highlight a new trait every month. April's trait was highlighted and celebrated this month and also has been stressed all year, as the students have been working to learn much deeper and more rigorous concepts in both math and ELA.

With ELA, students “have learned about stamina and strategies for close reading, citing text-based evidence and well-structured written responses,” Dewey said. The curriculum this year is much more rigorous than previous scholastic plans throughout New York state.

The ice cream certificates were “not rewards for taking the test. Kids shouldn’t be rewarded for things they should be doing.”

The students who successfully navigated through the tests were recognized for their perseverance, she said.

“The perseverance by these students on this assessment was highlighted and celebrated,” she said. “Children who were not present, who did not take the tests, who did not persevere in this instance, did not get recognition,” Dewey told board members.

She rhetorically asked “Should the students who persevered have not” been recognized?

Dewey said, “I have received a lot of bullying, threatening, and frankly, crazy-talk emails.”

The principal said her “school email address was posted on several anti-Common Core/refuse-the-test social media pages apparently across the nation because some woman from Michigan wants me to explain myself to her.”

“Then there are the pages and pages of diatribes about the horrible school and its administration,” she said.

Someone from Arkport posted Dewey’s home address on social media. An Arkport teacher and parent told Dewey “she was worried her own children might witness their principal being harmed in school over an ice cream novelty,” the principal told board members.

“Students who took the ELA test persevered,” Dewey summarized. Those students “had no idea they were going to be recognized for perseverance. They didn’t work hard in the hope of getting something someone else would not.”

And the students “certainly didn’t work hard for three consecutive days for the chance to score an ice cream novelty as part of their lunch on the last day of testing.”